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NIT POSTSEASONMarch 27, 2007Oliver PurnellK.C. RiversNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK OLIVER PURNELL: Obviously we were very pleased to be playing in the NIT Championship game on Thursday. I thought our guys did a good job of preparing for Air Force. It's always difficult and frustrating style to play against. I thought our guys did a good job in practice of focusing and really kind of carrying out our offensive game plan. I thought we imposed our will to a certain extent on them defensively. Probably maybe we gave up two back door cuts the entire game and in the half-court, pretty good ball pressure. I thought we relaxed a little bit at the end of the first half, and Air Force took full advantage. But they are not the kind of team that's going to go away. And as the game goes on, their style wears on you more and more. At the end of our game, it's just up to our guys to make big time plays. They are certainly led by K.C., all of our guys made big plays down the stretch to hold them off. I thought we really showed some mental toughness and the desire to win this thing. Q. Talk about the shot that Potter hit, the 3-pointer, turned out it was a big shot for you guys, and it's only his seventh 3-pointer all year he's made; can you talk about that? OLIVER PURNELL: Well, he's made two big plays, in the Syracuse game he shot that ball with confidence. That's a great example of preparation. We ran what we call our four-rub play, high ball screen, flat ball screen at the top. Vernon in the lane, he drew the help, Potter ready to shoot, great footwork, stepped in and knocked it down. Q. How do you explain how late in the season you had so many games where you could not come up with late game answers and now it seems you have all of them in the NIT. OLIVER PURNELL: Well, we're playing better. As I said, I think that each day in practice, we've gotten better. I think every half, it seems like we've gotten better. I thought we played really well in the first half against Air Force. Probably not quite as well, but what can you say about the way we played down the stretch. So you have to lump that in there with the rest. I just think we are playing better and better, and we still made some mistakes at the end. We are still missing free throws but we are making the plays to hang in there. We made the free throws to get the job done. Q. They came back to tie it, and they also shut you down pretty much in the first half. What did you do in the second half to get yourself open, and also down the stretch, the shots you made, the 3-pointers? K.C. RIVERS: The first half I was pretty much in a slump, Vernon had it going as well as the rest of the guys. They had pretty good defense in the first half. In the second half I found my rhythm and started knocking down shots. I was just in a rhythm, I had confidence, took my time to shoot. Q. Did they use full court pressure to dictate the pace and turnovers there? K.C. RIVERS: I was a little surprised but had to simmer down and get back to what we're used to doing and that's doing our stuff and getting the ball across the court. Q. Inaudible? OLIVER PURNELL: Basically we wanted to get the ball and -- something else did happen, buckle down on defense for that 1.5 that was still up on the clock. Q. What would it mean to you to win an NIT title? OLIVER PURNELL: It would mean a lot to me because it would kind of get this bitter taste out of my mouth of everything that's happened before, as well as bringing something back to Clemson that has not been done. End of FastScripts |
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